Remote control actuators enable an operator to control a valve from a remote control station. A remote control assembly of the type disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,387 to Tschanz et al., of common assignee herewith, is frequently used in ships for such a purpose. The Tschanz remote control includes a geared drive wheel, a geared driven wheel and an endless core element entrained around the drive and driven wheels to translate motion from the drive wheel to the driven wheel in a closed all-tension system. The core element includes a plurality of spaced apart radial protrusions which engage the gears on both wheels and thus enable rotational motion to be translated between the two wheels by means of the core element. The core element in this system is made endless by joining the two ends of a length of the core element with some kind of connector--usually a rigid joining tube crimped around the ends of the core element. The joining tube on the core element usually travels back and forth between the wheels.
A problem occurs with such a system whenever the core element moves relative to the wheels to such an extent that the joining tube contacts the gear teeth on one of the wheels. Since the joining tube is rigid, it cannot negotiate the radii established by the wheels and thus tends to damage the gears when contacting them, or jam between the gears and a housing which encloses the wheel. This locks any further movement of the core element and the wheels. If the joining tube is jammed between the geared wheel and the housing, the joining tube itself can be damaged, possibly allowing the ends of the core element to become detached.
Connectors such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,353 to Babacz, of common assignee herewith, have a single fixed pivot axis about which the core element ends can pivot. When the core element and connector becomes twisted, a connector of this type can not negotiate the radii established by the wheels and the core element and connector do not remain entrained around the wheels. Thus, with these type of connectors jamming, as described above, still occurs.